Thursday, June 7, 2007

Vitamin D Reduces Cancer Risk

Study: Vitamin D Reduces Cancer Risk Washington Post via QualityCounts.com 7/8/07 "...vitamin D cut the risk of several types of cancer by 60 percent overall for older women in the most rigorous study yet..."The findings ... are a breakthrough of great medical and public health importance," declared Cedric Garland, a prominent vitamin D researcher at the University of California-San Diego. "No other method to prevent cancer has been identified that has such a powerful impact."...The skin makes vitamin D when exposed to sunlight's ultraviolet rays. This study used that same form of the vitamin, known as D3 or cholecalciferol. Multivitamins usually carry a much weaker variant known as D2, but D3 is available in stand-alone dietary supplements...The research team gave 1,000 daily international units of vitamin D...And when the first-year cancers were excluded _ the ones mostly likely present before the study began _ the findings were stronger still: a 77 percent lower risk for the combo group...Joan Lappe, the study's lead researcher, said it "just adds to the great bunch of evidence that we need to have better vitamin D nutrition."..."